Sun 1 July 12:00

Dir: Leon Gast 86 mins, 1996, USA Cert PG
Leon Gast’s definitive look at the Ali-Foreman “Rumble in the Jungle” is more than just a great-moments-in-sports doc. It’s an insightful portrait of Ali as a 20th-century icon transformed into a symbol of tenacity for a beleaguered continent-and proof that the charismatic champ was indeed “the greatest.”

We have now chosen six very enthusiastic young people from the Bristol area to join six Weymouth natives at a four day long media camp in the only location in England outside London to host London 2012 Olympic Games events. From 27th July to 30th July we believe they will be pleasantly overwhelmed by the choice of topics to report on! The media camp is part of the Maritime Mix programme.

We’ve timed the camp to coincide with the opening of the London 2012 Olympic Games in Weymouth, and in addition to the competition sailing there’s a rich mix of cultural activity going on too. See our post over on the RELAYS citizen journalism blog for more details.

Sun 1 July 12:00

Dir: Leon Gast 86 mins, 1996, USA Cert PG
Leon Gast’s definitive look at the Ali-Foreman “Rumble in the Jungle” is more than just a great-moments-in-sports doc. It’s an insightful portrait of Ali as a 20th-century icon transformed into a symbol of tenacity for a beleaguered continent-and proof that the charismatic champ was indeed “the greatest.”

Olympic fervour is creeping into Watershed – there’s a news item on our main website and we’ve now finalised the details of a great set of screenings, events, games and talks throughout July!

There really is something for everyone; from veteran cyclist Tommy Godwin in conversation with David Goldblatt to Asterix at the Olympics; from Ethiopia to Nicaragua (via Mongolia!), and from marathon running to ping pong – we think we’ve included topics that will appeal to all ages, tastes and sporting inclinations!

You’ll find full details of the RELAYS July programme at Watershed here.

Yesterday afternoon, David Goldblatt and co-author Johnny Acton were guests on Steve Wright in the Afternoon, talking about their book How to Watch the Olympics. You can listen to the interview here (maybe only for a few days so be quick!), and if you like the sound of this invaluable guide to THE summer’s sporting feature you can get a copy from Watershed’s Box Office!

We were delighted to welcome to Watershed yesterday Millbrook Academy from Gloucester – the first school from outside Bristol to participate in our annual Media Literacy Workshops with David Goldblatt and volunteers from the BBC. (more…)

A reminder that a selection of the 0117 films featured in the last post will be included in the free Hansel of Film screening at Watershed on 31st July, the final event of our RELAYS programme in July. Bearded Gnome, the makers of the winning film ‘Wind‘, will act as ‘runners‘ to transport the Bristol batch of films to Prestatyn, the next venue on The Hansel relay tour. Watch out for news of how they plan to take the films on this cross-border journey – judging from their film it’s likely to be ingenious and entertaining!

Our friends at Encounters Film Festival have now uploaded the 24 films that were submitted for the 0117 Film Challenge last month and you can watch them all now as a playlist on the Encounters Festival YouTube channel.

There’s a great range of themes and styles amongst these two dozen mini movies, all worth a viewing but a special mention for the youngest team, Sim of EAC – all girl cast and crew of 14 – 15 year olds who made Ballet of Bristol, headed up by sisters Maya and Iona Keeley featured in the photo above.

Maya Keeley from team Sim of EAC said: “I entered the 0117 film challenge with no thoughts of winning anything and purely looking for the experience – although it was great to get an award it wasn’t my focus. It allowed me to experiment and develop my ideas and the other films were really inspiring to watch.”

As part of the fantastic day of celebrations tomorrow that are to mark three decades of Watershed there’s a screening of Tick Tock – one of the RELAYS Short Cuts films we made in 2010 with Fast Forward youth group (above). The screening is included in the programme “Our Peeps 1 – St Pauls” and is on at 17:00. Tickets are free but worth booking as they’re going fast!